Maple Leaf Dairy

Avalon Johnson was the first person selling milk door to door in Halifax. In 1904 he began and eventually grew his one man operation into what would become Maple Leaf Dairy.

In those early years of distribution, dozens of milk peddlers got into the business and would frequently compete for the same customers - making things very inefficient.

Several years later, co-operatives and associations began to form to remove some of these inefficiencies. Farmer's Dairy and Maple Leaf Dairy became the dominant players in the Halifax market and in the 1950's Johnson controlled not only Maple Leaf, but also 35% of Farmer's as well.

Although they were staunch competitor's, in 1961 Avalon Johnson sold Maple Leaf Dairy and his holdings in Farmer's to what would become the Farmer's Co-Operative Dairy Limited.

Farmer's remained an independent Co-Operative headquartered in Halifax until 2013 when they merged with Quebec's Agropur.

This design is a reproduction of the paper milk pog that used to protect the layer of cream in the refillable milk bottles such as Avalon Johnson used to peddle door to door on the streets of Halifax.